Pantone swatches how important are they?

[George Elsmore]

Hi Lorraine, couldnt do without mine! its not only useful for matching but also when you get given a pantone ref in an email etc you are off to a good start in getting the important bit of the job right. They are expensive i suppose but take the hassle out of the colour matching process and i would say a must if you are digi printing. The only downside is when some clown of a graphic designer gets hold of a pantone book and wants the most obscure colour in vinyl!

just my thrupence worth 😀

[Warren Beard]

Hi Lorraine

I would say if you are printing then yes but if not then I’m sure every now and again if you asked on here it would be fine. I don’t have one either and was just looking at prices today actually as I got a catalog in the post that had them in it (£52.88 incl) for both coated and uncoated books together.

As for life span, Pantone advise changing it every year but I really think that is just to make money, if you look after it it will last many years, it is because it can fade over time and get dirty from dirty fingers and this obviously obscures the colour slightly.

I hope that helps.

cheers

Warren

[Marcella Ross]

I’ve had mine a few years and only now and again do I come up against a reference I don’t have.
Mine is used a lot Lorraine. When a customer can’t see vinyl swatches they will give me a pantone reference to match to, or as close as.

[John Childs]

Lorraine,

We couldn’t manage without ours because we are regularly being given Pantone numbers to match. If that rarely happens to you then you need to make a judgement call on whether you need one. I would say that it is a useful tool in your armoury though.

Our work is all on vans, and therefore gloss vinyl, so we only ever use the coated version, although we do have the uncoated one as well. I wouldn’t buy another uncoated though.

It is recommended that you buy a new one every year but, as Warren says, that’s only to frighten people into spending more money. The thing is that printed Pantone swatch and vinyl are going to look different anyway, in the same way that coated and uncoated are different, so they are only a guide anyway. We’ve had ours for years but as it only gets used a couple of times a week, and lives in a dark drawer the rest of the time, fading isn’t likely to be much of an issue anyway.

We are given a Pantone number, use our judgement and experience to get the closet match in vinyl we can, then get approval from our customer for our choice. Can’t go wrong.

[Gavin MacMillan]

Hi Lorraine, we get our books from local printers. They need to be way more accurate than us so we get the old slightly faded books. Never had any problems with them being a bit older and we keep them in a very swanky wee case that stops them fading too much more!

G

[Lorraine Clinch]

hello all! Thank you all for your replies, very useful information.
Warren, I am surprised at the price you quoted, as I thought the books were much more expensive than that.

I think I shall have to invest, seems sensible, and if things don’t work out with the pub purchase (yes, we are still waiting… 👿 ) I shall be definitely be pushing for larger premises to buy a printer & expand the business. I’ll know in 2 days which way the hammer falls.

[Warren Beard]

Hi Lorraine

It is from a company called Jigsaw (www.jigsaw24.com) always have great prices on mostly mac equipment but also things like pantone colour guides.

you can order on line.

cheers

Warren

[Lorraine Clinch]

Thanks for that Warren, I’ll have a look now. 😀

[Peter Yip]

we couldnt do without our Pantone swatch, it helps the whole design and printing process much easier, especially when clients wants it in a particular colour.

last year we even brought a X-rite colour swatchbook spectrometer, as we are getting a lot of clients who give us a sample of a colour on a printed media or object, so we ‘scan’ them to match.

regards
Peter

[Simon Duggan]

Hi Lorraine
I have a pantone chart on my PC. I can email it over to you its all I use. Let me know if you want it
Simon

[Warren Beard]

quote Simon Duggan:

Hi Lorraine
I have a pantone chart on my PC. I can email it over to you its all I use. Let me know if you want it
Simon

And how does that work if you need to match a physical sample? remembering most people don’t have calibrations for their monitors to reflect correct colour, not that you can hold up a printed sample to your screen to compare 😕

How do you do it?

Warren

[John Gregson]

My pantone books that old its in Black n White 😀 :lol1: 😳
sorry i’ll get me coat – its the pantone process black C one. 😳

[Simon Duggan]

Hi Warren
I thought Lorraine wanted it to match vinyls to. I never had a problem when someone gives me a pantone number I match as close as I can with vinyl and then give them the exact number in return it works for me as I do not print I only work in vinyl. The vinyls have always been close enough
Simon

[Dave Harrison]

Lorraine before spending any money have a look at the different pantone guides. I would personally go for something like the colourbrigde books as they not only give you pantone ref numbers but also CMYK & RGB codes to aid when designing on screen for print.

Remember it can be an absolute nightmare trying to match vinyls with pantone colours. . customers soon change their mind and compromise on colour when they learn the price of avery pantone matched and 3M vinyls !

I find I use my RAL book for matching powder coats more than I use the pantone swatches but I guess it all depends on the work you are doing.

[Warren Beard]

quote Simon Duggan:

Hi Warren
I thought Lorraine wanted it to match vinyls to. I never had a problem when someone gives me a pantone number I match as close as I can with vinyl and then give them the exact number in return it works for me as I do not print I only work in vinyl. The vinyls have always been close enough
Simon

Yes but that is using a pantone book, not a pantone digital file on a PC.